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In this colour photograph commuters walk around the Bishopsgate entrance to Liverpool Street Station. The station was built in Victorian Gothic style with two brick towers on either side of the entrance.

Goodbye Liverpool Street

Written by Sheldrake Editor on . Posted in News.

One of London’s most prominent landmarks, Liverpool Street Station, is about to be destroyed by the very railway that promised to uphold its listed buildings heritage. Network Rail is seeking planning consent to demolish large parts of the station, seen here in a photograph by John McAslan & Partners.

On Tuesday 10th February Network Rail will seek planning approval from the City of London Corporation for a development that will obliterate the very essence of Liverpool Street Station. If they get their way, they will demolish the concourse and entrance buildings and build a tower block over the train shed, overshadowing the station hotel, the historic Bishopsgate conservation zone and the view of St Paul’s Cathedral.

In this visualization of the plans for the redevelopment of Liverpool Street Station, concrete pillars frame the station entrance and 19 floors of office building rise above the train shed.
After Network Rail’s redevelopment, Liverpool Street Station will have largely disappeared beneath a 19-storey tower black. Photo courtesy Acme UK Ltd.

Liverpool Station is listed Grade II and the station hotel Grade II*. Under planning laws, such national landmarks should never be compromised, and their survival should be prioritized over any development proposal.

Listed Buildings Heritage

Would you accept a proposal to build a tower block over St Paul’s Cathedral or the Tower of London, the other two major listed buildings in the City of London? Liverpool Street Station falls into the same category, argues Griff Rhys Jones, President of The Victorian Society. If you accept that claim, and we do, then why should Liverpool Street be treated with any less respect?

If Network Rail’s plan were to go ahead, it would be equivalent on the scale of architectural barbarism to the demolition of Pennsylvania Station, New York. Liverpool Street Station’s historic importance as the place that welcomed child refugees fleeing Nazi-occupied countries with the Kindertransport would be diminished.

To read an argument against Network Rail’s retrograde proposal and hear stories of other landmark stations that nearly met the guillotine, turn to Architecture for Humans.

You can find summaries of the development proposals at The Victorian Society and Save Britain’s Heritage. See also coverage in Architects’ Journal and the BBC.

Tomorrow Is the Last Day to Object

To object to Network Rail’s planning application, go to the City of London Corporation Planning Portal. The last day for objections to be lodged is tomorrow, Tuesday 10th February.